Award-winning blog for book reviews, author interviews, and anything writing-related.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Interview with writer Eddie K. Wright

My
special guest today is Eddie
K. Wright. We’re chatting about his memoir, Voice for the Silent Fathers.

During his virtual book tour, Eddie will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and
Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be
entered for a chance to win, use the
form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit
his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

First
time author Eddie K. Wright is a fitness trainer, Yoga instructor, spiritual
motivational speaker and an inmate at a federal prison. His personal
transformation upon realizing the Universal laws and love of life, supports his
conviction in his "Gangster to Guru" book series. The premier release
Voice for the Silent Fathers details
the struggle and inner conflict with being the parent of a homosexual child in
the day, and a known connected gangster at night. Overcoming his "No son
of mine" mentality, by realizing the true meaning of unconditional love
wasn't easy, but his deep insight, heartfelt honesty, and 'laugh to keep from
crying' attitude, makes for a humorous read for anyone touched by this issue
which means it's for everyone!

Welcome,
Eddie. Please share a little about your current release.

Voice for the Silent
Fathers
is about the difficult relationship between me and my son. I was a teenage
parent with a young son that spoke like a girl, whose favorite color was pink
and had a mother who was the epitome of baby mama drama. I was no angel either
as my criminal lifestyle is sprinkled throughout the story. This memoir is
character driven and will take you on an emotional roller coaster from start to
finish.

What
inspired you to write this book?

I
can claim to be the top leading expert in this field since as of June 2016,
when Voice for the Silent Fathers was
released, it was and to my understanding currently the first book written by a
father of a homosexual son. It's a topic that fathers don't discuss and I know
how important the father/son relationship is. I was inspired to let my son know
what I was dealing with emotionally, the struggles that I was having to find
the right answers to questions I didn't want him to ask since I didn't want a
gay son.

Excerpt
from Voice for the Silent Fathers:

Introductory
Chapter Excerpt:

Was there anything I could do to stop my son’s homosexuality?
When did I know my son was gay? What made him that way? I've witnessed the
desperation in the eyes of fathers, from all walks of life, who have pulled me
aside, away from listening ears wanting to know the answers to these frequently
asked questions, agonizing the possibilities that their son might be gay.

Mothers seem to be more liberal about their sons decisions to
choose what makes them happy in life and most importantly "who" they
share their lives with, but for fathers, nine times out of ten the topic is
taboo, especially the fathers who I've met in Federal prison, or on the
opposite end of the spectrum working with celebrities in the entertainment
business.

I can tell you first hand, I never thought I would write a book
and never a book on a topic like this, but life is funny that way. I found
myself raising a son at 18 years old, still a kid myself, with a baby boy
headed down that taboo highway. I was confused, frustrated, and angry at the
world. "Why me?" I often thought in those early days... Why has life
thrown me this crazy curve ball?

Back then it wasn't so easy to talk to my friends about my son’s
odd behavior, something's you just didn't talk about it. So I struggled alone,
doing everything I could to stop the unstoppable.

This book is the "Voice of the Silent Father” for those
going through the same thing I went through; and this is my story:

I was raised by my single white mother in the suburbs of Suffolk
County, Long Island along with my sister Luvina who's three years older than
me. Our African American father played a limited role in our lives, moving back
to Rochester New York, when I was two months old.

Visiting with my father a few weeks out of the summer wasn't
enough to make a big impact, let me correct that, it wasn't enough to instill
the positive impact a young black male needs.

I wanted the type of dad that all of my friends had, taking them
to Yankees games, and throwing the football around, but my father never made
much of an effort to be interested in my life, which looking back to those
early days definitely a contributing factor for me turning to the criminal
lifestyle.

I promised myself that I would be the father I needed instead of
the father I had. But who would have thought that fatherhood would inflict me
with a catastrophe that would have me second guessing that promise.

My son Drew was born September 20th 1990. I don't know if
homosexuality is a biological or mental condition. I never thought Drew grew up
making a conscious decision to be gay, in the way other kids are making plans
to be firemen, police officers, or doctors.

When I would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he
would tell me all the normal kid choices and never straight out said "Dad,
I want to be a gay ballerina dancer!" but as a father with a keen street
intuition I sensed something was having a premature influence affecting Drew.

At a very young age he started sucking his teeth and rolling his
eye's copying his mother. He would alter his voice to imitate a girlish tone
and it would get on my nerves with every word spoken like the gayest stereotype
on TV. This was when he was still very young, a toddler and I avoided paying
too much attention to these signs for fear of re-reinforcing those flamboyant
behaviors.

Around others, especially the women in Drews life, I was
depicted as "Mr. Macho"... The bad guy who was
"over-reacting" when I addressed and attempted to correct certain
mannerisms that couldn't be ignored.

My "Gaydar" was active watching all his behaviors for
a "Gayness Alert!" which would make me rush in like the heterosexual
swat team to stop whatever he was doing and make it more boyish.

What
exciting story are you working on next?

Next,
I'm releasing The Evolution of a Gangster
Turned Guru, which is a journey of my spiritual transformation over the
last 13 years of being in prison.

When did
you first consider yourself a writer?

At
the end of my third year of incarceration, I wrote a letter to a Chaplin, who
read that letter to his congregation of over 2,000 people. He then asked me to
write his Christmas Eve service. It took about 20 minutes to read and he read
that letter over 11 times at different events, with life changes responses.

Do you write full-time?
If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and
how do you find time to write?

One
of the blessings of being in prison is that I do have time to write full time. I
still have days when I get so busy that I might skip a day or two out of the
week. I dedicate from 11:30 until 3:00 Monday thru Friday as my writing time. Other
than writing, I spend at least 2 hours working out , an hour meditating and from
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm, I'm making cheese cakes or pizza's to sell so I can support
myself and then call it the day.

What
would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My
writing quirk is that I use my bed as my desk and always have a cup of steaming
hot black coffee close by.

As a
child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I
wanted to be and became a gangster. I loved the movies like Scare face and the
Godfather as a young teen. My younger childhood years, I loved Robinhood,
always rooted for the Indians or the outlaws in cowboy movies. It was a
struggle for my single mother, so I guess I really wanted to be rich and I saw
the best way for me was to be a gangster.

Anything
additional you want to share with the readers?

My
main focus is spiritually self-helping my readers. As much as I tried to
attempt to change my son from being gay, I realized that the change had to come
from within. That's the solution to all of our difficulties and challenges we
face.

Voice for the Silent
Fathers
will make you laugh out loud, drop a few tears, you'll hare me at times but
love me in the end and find that you made a new friend. Thanks again!!

Congrats on the tour and I appreciate the excerpt and the great giveaway as well. Love the tours, I get to find books and share with my sisters the ones I know they would enjoy reading and they both love to read. Thank you!

I hope you will all take the time to read my memoir. I promise you won’t be disappointed. If you are, I’ll send you a link to my 2nd release in hopes of a second chance. Just send a message to my publisher at Mwrightgroup@gmail.com.

@Joseph Wallace Yes, I do plan on writing a part two but I'm allowing the story to come together, as many things are happening so I figured in about two years, there will be enough for the sequel. Thank you for having me, I really enjoyed hosting.

I'm listed!

Blog Tour Partner - Goddess Fish

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About Me

I'm a NH native and love New England. I love writing about the region, exploring it on foot, on my bicycle, and in my car. There are so many small communities and fun and interesting people in this area, that I could be here a lifetime and not do all it is I want to do. :)

I'm a moderator at The Writer's Chatroom that hosts live chats with guest authors on Sunday nights 7-9PM EST. Join the e-mail list to get notifications of upcoming guests, then stop in and join the conversation!